Today, many personal electronic devices come equipped with digital cameras. Illustrative personal electronic devices include, but are not limited to, mobile phones, personal data assistants, portable music players, and laptop/desktop/tablet computers. Image sensors used in these types of devices often have small dynamic ranges. That is, their ability to capture a range of light from total darkness to full sunlight is limited.
One technique to overcome the limited dynamic range of such cameras is known as High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI). The most common HDRI method is known as the multiple exposure technique. Using this approach, the same scene is photographed multiple times at different exposures/apertures with the multiple collected images being merged into a single image. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art of image processing, the resulting image can have a wider dynamic range than the underlying camera can provide to any single image. In general, HDRI photography typically works well in outdoor settings, or settings in which there is a wide range of light and/or color.
HDRI capability has recently been introduced into some Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras. These cameras often provide the capability to manually control many image capture parameters such as, for example, focus, shutter speed and aperture. It is possible in some of these cameras to also preset the image capture parameters used during HDRI mode operations (e.g., change in f-stop). That is, if an HDRI mode captures 3 images, a user may set one image to be taken at +1 f-stop and another to be taken at −1 f-stop relative to the f-stop at which a first image is captured. Once manually set and after the camera has been manually placed into the HDRI mode, the settings will be used to automatically capture the designated number of images.
The ability to use HDRI capture techniques can be especially important for cameras included in personal electronic devices because their image sensors generally provide limited dynamic range. Recognition of this fact has led to the introduction of HDRI capability in some personal electronic devices. Unfortunately, there has been no means to automatically determine when HDRI operations can benefit users of these devices. DSLR camera users make that determination themselves based on photographic experience and, possibly, artistic desires. Most users of camera's included in personal electronic devices lack this experience. Accordingly, there is a need for systems, methods, and computer readable medium for automatically determining when scene capture may benefit from HDRI techniques based on the dynamic range of a camera's image sensor.